Man Made Monsters
WALTER DEAN MYERS AWARD WINNER
AMERICAN INDIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION YOUTH LITERATURE HONOR
INTERNATIONAL LITERACY ASSOCIATION BOOK AWARD WINNER
WHIPPOORWHILL AWARD WINNER
READING THE WEST BOOK AWARDS SHORTLIST
NEA READ ACROSS AMERICA RECOMMENDED TITLE
Washington Post - Booklist Editors' Choice - Publishers Weekly - Horn Book - New York Public Library Tsalagi should never have to live on human blood, but sometimes things just happen to sixteen-year-old girls. Making her YA debut, Cherokee writer Andrea L. Rogers takes her place as one of the most striking voices of the horror renaissance that has swept the last decade. Horror fans will get their thrills in this collection - from werewolves to vampires to zombies - all the time-worn horror baddies are there. But so are predators of a distinctly American variety - the horrors of empire, of intimate partner violence, of dispossession. And so too the monsters of Rogers' imagination, that draw upon long-told Cherokee stories - of Deer Woman, fantastical sea creatures, and more. Following one extended Cherokee family across the centuries, from the tribe's homelands in Georgia in the 1830s to World War I, the Vietnam War, our own present, and well into the future, each story delivers a slice of a particular time period that will leave readers longing for more. Alongside each story, Cherokee artist and language technologist Jeff Edwards delivers haunting illustrations that incorporate Cherokee syllabary. But don't just take it from us - award-winning writer of The Only Good Indians and Mongrels Stephen Graham Jones says that "Andrea Rogers writes like the house is on fire and her words are the only thing that can put it out." Man-Made Monsters is a masterful, heartfelt, haunting collection ripe for crossover appeal - just don't blame us if you start hearing things that go bump in the night.
P R A I S E ★ "Many of these stories sound as if they were passed down as family histories. It may read like speculative fiction, but it feels like truth."
--Horn Book (starred) ★ "Stunning collection of short stories follows a Cherokee family through two centuries, beginning with something akin to a vampire attack and ending with zombies."
--BCCB (starred) ★ "Spine-tingling...A simultaneously frightening and enthralling read."
--Publishers Weekly (starred) ★ "Chilling... Exquisite... A creepy and artful exploration of a haunting heritage."
--Kirkus (starred) ★ "Startling...Will leave readers--adults as well as teens--unsettled, feeling like they have caught a glimpse into a larger world."
--Booklist (starred)
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[STAR]"A chilling story collection following a sprawling Cherokee family through many generations... Rogers' grounded, smooth writing style--juggling first-, third-, and even second-person points of view-- makes magical elements (from milder hauntings to monsters like vampires, werewolves, and zombies) as threatening as human villains. The stakes remain high: The short story format means any character one meets could later die. Exquisite white-on-black line art from Cherokee artist Edwards sets the eerie mood. The use of the Noto Sans Cherokee typeface and Edwards' hand-drawn Cherokee syllabary beautifully integrates written language into the book's design. A creepy and artful exploration of a haunting heritage."
--Kirkus (starred)
[STAR] "Startling...Will leave readers--adults as well as teens--unsettled, feeling like they have caught a glimpse into a larger world, and like there is a wider one still, just out of sight."--Booklist (starred)
[STAR] "Spine-tingling...artfully tackles themes of colonialism and its effects on entire generations, for a simultaneously frightening and enthralling read."--Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Teen and adult readers looking for a taste of the gorgeously gruesome should snap up this dark, engrossing jewel."-- Shelf-Awareness
[STAR] "This stunning collection of short stories follows a Cherokee family through two centuries, beginning with something akin to a vampire attack and ending with zombies... Rogers has a rich authorial toolbox as she effortlessly swaps between narrator points of view, story length, and writing styles to best tell each story in a way befitting of its protagonist and rooted in a specific time and place... Generational trauma is present here, but this is not a collection of tragedy and victims, and there is room for revenge, for defiance, and for resilience even among literal and metaphorical monsters closing in all around this sprawling family."-- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred)
"Rogers's story collection follows one extended Cherokee family across centuries. Each story elicits chills in different ways, while also feeling incredibly grounded and intoxicating. From vampires to the Vietnam War; they vary in genre and style while Cherokee artist Jeff Edwards illustrates each story. A haunting and stunning book for you to enjoy." -- Buzzfeed
"Man Made Monsters is a brilliant and expansive journey across time, seen through a Cherokee lens, written by the brilliant and essential voice of Andrea Rogers. This collection is full to the brim with voice and breadth, including but not limited to magic, horror, and fantasy. The book is fun, funny, and dead-serious. It is beautifully written, and it is full of monsters."
--Tommy Orange
[STAR] "Many of these stories sound as if they were passed down as family histories. It may read like speculative fiction, but it feels like truth."-- Horn Book (starred)
"Dazzling, diverse, often terrifying."--Buffalo News
"Sometimes the only way to grapple with a monstrous past is through horror. Andrea L. Rogers offers up more than a dozen linked stories, tracing an extended Cherokee family from the Trail of Tears to the present. Along the way, we meet a German vampire hiding his bloodlust along a violent frontier, a mixed-race student of science trying to bring a young boy back to life, and werewolves, ghosts, zombies and the Deer Woman. The book's rich illustrations incorporate the Cherokee syllabary, hinting at the layers of history beneath each tale." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune
Best of the Year, Bank Street College
